The year began with me in the 6th form at Kenyngton Manor and not knowing what I was going to do for a living. I was still riding uncle Sonny's BSA Sunbeam scooter to and from school and football matches and finally I got a girl to drape my arm around although having not passed my test there was no prospect of her getting on the back even if she had wanted to.

The Sunbeam progressively began to show a lot of dissent and disrespect when it came to reliability which was a complete pain. I missed a couple of matches for Kew and got a serious bollocking from the coach. In fact he said I was not to bother at all if I missed another game. A few weeks later I was thrown off the team. Bastard.

I left school in the July of 1969. There was no point my staying on and it was a crap school academically anyway. Dad lined me up a job in the Civil Service as a Scientific Assistant in the Ministry of Technology, Metrology Division based at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex (South of Watford). It was about ten miles from our home in Ashford.

Comerfords: The Thames Ditton dealer was a Mecca in the '60's but alas disappeared a long time ago.

Showing the type of disrespect and moodiness I had come to expect the BSA Sunbeam expired the week before I was due to start work. No more money, time nor effort would be invested in the scooter I was told. Mum took pity on me I guess and, funded by some money she had been left by my granddad who had died about 18 months prior, she said I should get a new scooter.

I knew what I wanted - an SX200. We looked at the adverts in the papers and there were a few for sale locally including Peter Bollans' Chelsea FC coloured special. We went to take a look. It was beautiful. As was par for the course Peter Bollans only had the scooter a year when on his 17th birthday his dad had bought him a new car. Come the summer of '69 he had passed his driving test and was ditching the scooter. Need I say more?

We couldn't afford it. I was gutted but made no fuss. After all I was bringing no money to the party. We looked at a couple of others including my schoolmate John Falconer's 1966 red SX200 which we could afford but my dad said was too tatty for the money. That pissed John off as well.

Mum to the rescue: Pictured in 1992

We then drove to Comerford's, a bike and scooter dealer in Thames Ditton. There I saw PUC89F, a 1968 SX150 in white with green and gold side panels, flyscreen and mirrors, front rack, backrest and at a price we could afford.

I believe mum/nan/granddad paid around £190.00 for the scooter there and then and I rode it home absolutely chuffed to pieces.

Religiously, the SX150 was cleaned and polished every Saturday morning, and probably most every week I owned it. I wasn't that mechanical and used to get all the regular servicing done by a dealer near where I worked in Teddington which is where, in September 1969, I finally got around to applying to take my test and passing it first attempt. Girls and mates legally on the back at last..

This was more like it. Life was looking up and I was only seventeen.

And pictures? I am still trying to locate photographs of the SX150. So far I have found just three, all in black & white. They appear later.